Page 10 of The Dawn Chorus
‘Yes. His absence will rattle her. This was to be the first time they met. The Great Territorial Act, which is to be ratified on that night, promises a new colony in France.’
‘Sheol II.’
‘Yes.’
David, the mysterious oracle, had told me as much. That Nashira planned to open another prison city. To take more voyants from their homes and force them into a nightmare.
‘You never mentioned this,’ I said to Warden.
‘Consider it mentioned now. It is another reason why we must disrupt the Bicentenary,’ Warden said. ‘If we can demonstrate that there is rebellion against the Rephaim, and if all of you can escape from the colony that night, Ménard will have grounds to delay signing the Great Territorial Act. For fear that the Bone Seasons will be exposed.’ He topped up my goblet of water. ‘His representatives must see you at your strongest.’
‘They must.’ I propped myself up on one elbow. ‘Back to three pills a day, then.’
No reply. I was taking the iron and the contraceptive out of choice – the last thing I needed right now was a period – but he had never presented me with a green pill again.
‘There should be no more excursions to the House,’ he said. ‘Paige, I ask that you tell your allies not to enter it. Clearly security has been tightened.’
‘The House is chock-full of provisions,’ I said. ‘Julian knows a pair of white-jackets, both decent climbers. They could try.’
‘If they fail, I would not send anyone else.’
After a moment, I nodded.
‘You said those would curemostof the harlies,’ I said. ‘Was there not enough for everyone, Michael?’ Michael looked away, downcast. ‘It’s all right. You’ve saved a lot of lives.’
Warden brought me the goblet of water and a pill. I sluiced the medicine down.
‘It should be you who chooses, Paige,’ he said in an undertone. ‘You know the Rookery.’
When I realised what he meant, my fingertips blanched on the goblet.
‘You want me to decide which of them to cure,’ I said. ‘And … which of them to leave.’
‘They may not all die. Some of them may weather the sickness,’ Warden said, ‘but others will need the medicine. And I suspect you would sooner the choice fell to a human than a Rephaite.’
Michael glanced at me, looking worried. I set the goblet aside.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I would.’
For a time, there was stillness between the three of us – a dreamwalker, an unreadable, and a Rephaite. We ought to have been bitter enemies, yet the rebellion now turned on our alliance. Michael rubbed his pink-knuckled hands together while I tried not to think about the responsibility he had passed me with those boxes.
There would be no easy choices on this road.
‘Thank you.’ Warden looked at us. ‘Both of you. For all you are risking. I hope the sacrifice is not in vain.’
‘It won’t be,’ I said. ‘Not this time.’
Chapter 2
The Hunger
SCION CITADEL OF PARIS
4JANUARY2060
Sweat plastered my nightshirt to my skin. I lay on my bed in the safe house, in too much pain to move. Not just from my wounds. This was withdrawal. They had injected me with more than one drug in the Archon.
A dry cough shook my frame. The clock now read 15:28. It might have been a day or a week since I had last woken like this, feverish and clattering.